


Book 1: The Path of Rage

by ShogunTaira



Series: Escape From Solace [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 01:01:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1623314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShogunTaira/pseuds/ShogunTaira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Year 2775. The Roman Empire has risen again and has conquered every inch of the globe. They still desire expansion and thus have begun looking toward space. They have built a structure within the orbit of Earth called the Infinity Band, the Empire's "home away from home" and it's forward operations base for missions to the rest of the solar system and beyond. Life is serene on the Infinity Band and rumor has it that the secret to life, the universe and everything can be seen if one passes directly over the space station and looks down. However, that portion of the Infinity Band is off limits to anyone but the Emperor himself. A man desires to destroy the Band, another desires to cleanse himself and claim the Empire for himself, and a woman desires the Band for herself. Their paths will cross - and the world around them will collapse, but who will remain?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Book 1: The Path of Rage

**Author's Note:**

> Mostly informational notes. Skip if you don't care.
> 
> Intro - Basically the summary (look up!)
> 
> Earth - As life moves outward from Earth, the planet itself is stuck in a suburban nightmare. Houses are organized into tightly-knit ghettos and many of these complexes war with each other over multiple issues - a gang war between cities. Rome, the Empire's capital, is no different but is known to be the safest of these cities because of it's proximity to the Imperial palace. Most people want to escape Earth but are helpless without a Crucible, a transparent, turquoise cube that can launch an EMP to drop Earth's Imperial-owned planetwide shields for a short time before the emergency shields kick in. Those who found a Crucible have all but failed and died on their attempts.
> 
> Crucibles - Crucible's are rare to come by on Earth. Productivity in the ghettos are low and minimal at best to tend for the peoples' essential needs. Large factories and companies are focused on military manufacturing to maintain order in the Empire. Crucibles are also very expensive to construct and transport with the necessary repellants; they are surrounded by a radioactive substance that requires multiple repellants to transport safely. Crucibles, when activated, let out a massive EMP and disable any electronic or otherwise digital entity in it's vicinity. However with each use, they give off a massive amount of radiation along with the EMP. Because of their rarity and volatility, it would only be natural that many people would want one. One such organization claims to actually have one: CHAOS.
> 
> CHAOS - CHAOS is an underground mercenary organization that resents the Imperial sovereignty and plans to break the shield that surrounds Earth and liberate the planet's inhabitants from their unbearable cesspool. The group is led by five such mercenary veterans, only known by their callsigns: Calypso, Helios, Ares, Ops, and Saturn. Together they share power in the organization which has become more or less a drug cartel; the members of CHAOS have split into separate factions, each with their own culture and goals. In addition, the leadership's claim to a Crucible is falsified, a ruse to instill hope in the minds of the members the organization and Earth. Time is running out for CHAOS, but two new members, Cyrus Valens and Livia Ulixes, show new promise for the leadership.
> 
> ===============================================================================
> 
> Author's Notes - This has been a constantly developing story I have had in my head for the past ten years and only now am I finally ready to begin piecing it together. It is in no way a complete story in any sense of the word but the major scenes/reveals/etc. are pretty well thought out. For now, please enjoy this first chapter, and feel free to leave comments, suggestions, criticisms, anything you may have for me. I want to have some kind of reader interaction going on here!

\--August 23, 2775--  
\--CHAOS entry OP #387--

== SAVING GRACE ==

\-- Members: --  
\-- Helios --  
\-- Cyrus --  
\-- Livia --

\-- Status: CLASSIFIED --

== RECORDING BEGIN ==

(Helios): How much longer on that hack, Cyrus?

(Cyrus): Almost got it. Give me another 30 seconds.

(Helios): I don't think we have 30 seconds. I can already see the damn raid squads pulling up down there.

(Livia): I see 'em too. *chuckle* Should be fun.

*Confirmation beep*

(Cyrus): That's it. We're in.

(Helios): Great! Get it out of there, quick! Hold on...

*Grunts of effort*

*Latch bursts open*

(Helios): Agh! sh**! Try opening that thing BEFORE we get our masks on! *sigh* You got it?

(Cyrus): Yeah, got i- wait, what the hell, Livia!?

*Grunts of effort, followed by two blasts and screams of pain*

(Livia): Sorry boys, but this minx has more use of this Crucible then any of you combined. Who knows? It may even kill all of you. Now THAT should be fun to watch, hehehe... ah.... Ciao!

(Helios): Livia! Goddamn it!

*Violent banging on door*

(Raid Member): Open up! We're giving you 60 seconds to open up and surrender yourselves. You are surrounded!

(Cyrus): We gotta go after her! Nrgg... That's the only one they got!

(Helios): Yeah I know. Uhh... Think you can survive a window jump with that shell in your gut?

(Cyrus): What!?

(Helios): I'll take that as a yes.

== END OF RECORDING ==

The recording ended abruptly. Calypso's finger rested firmly on the stop button, eyes fixed on Helios.

"How about THAT? You wanna explain all that to me, or do I have to talk to Cyrus about this now?"

Helios sat in silence, arms crossed and face lowered.

"We couldn't have known about her intentions. Besides, who else wou-"

"That's enough!"

More silence.

"I've heard enough of this garbage! How many times do I have to remind you that YOU were the one who brought them in? Those words came out of YOUR mouth, Helios: 'Trust me, they can get the job done', remember that? You said that, right? You brought along a ticking time bomb, and you endangered the life of a new recruit. Is that the kind of message you want to spread to our organization? And Livia! You knew that Livia was a volatile recruit, yet you brought her along for this op! Not even a month into their recruitment and that psychopath has made off with a fucking CRUCIBLE!!"

Helios straightened up.

"Then we know it's in good hands."

"Get out of my office. NOW. We'll talk about this with the others later."

Helios stood and walked out, Calypso slamming the door behind him. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and took a deep breath. He spotted Cyrus sitting hunched over at the Med Bay looking at him menacingly. Helios rose the cigarette slightly and smirked, offering it to him, but Cyrus' expression remained firm. Helios made his way down to the Med Bay, cigarette lit.

"You know nobody is going to look at you in the same light again, right?" Cyrus said looking straight on as his side was being patched up by a service bot.

"Yeah..." Helios took another drag, this one longer then the others. "But at least we found a Crucible and know who it's with. That now makes Livia the most wanted woman in the entire order."

"She's insane... You know, my father once told me: 'If you give a psychopath a toy pistol, don't expect a blank, expect a hydrogen bomb.' Now, Livia's turned that hydrogen bomb into something that maybe even the emperor can't stop. You think a bunch of disorganized mercenaries are going to stop her?"

Helios turned to Cyrus. "Then what about that eyepiece of yours?" Silence. "You say you keep seeing visions in that thing, messages from the gods was it? Why not ask them for help?"

"I don't control them. It's not a fucking vidcall, alright? All I hear and see are their messages and I can't make any sense of them. It's all divine jargon to me."

Helios let out a laugh. "Ahh... cmon now Cyrus, you and I both know that's bullshit; you know what they're saying. Even still, it's probably all that Kozaas going to your head. Drugs do some crazy things to you, you know. Stay in school and all?"

"Shut up. There's more behind this eyepiece then your entire organization. It's best if you don't concern yourself with it any longer."

"Ooh, big words from an average man. Look you're lucky I got you this gig, alright? I had to do some major persuasion with the leadership to get you in. Wanna know why I did that? Because I trust you. Unlike the others I still think you can make something of yourself."

Cyrus let out a sigh as the service bot finished up. "Fine. So what are you suggesting we do?"

Helios chuckled and took another drag. "Well, first we gotta get that spirit of yours up. I know a guy, goes by the name Germanicus. Big dude. He's in deep with the syndicates in Europe. Last week, he got a report of recent recruits to his portion of the network."

"Yeah, that's all fun and games but what's the point?" Cyrus struggled to say as he got up, holding his side.

Helios turned to him. "One of the names that came up was Ulpia Valens."

Cyrus seemed like he had regained his strength in an instant. He leaned in closer. "Middle name?"

Helios shrugged. "Only said 'Ulpia Valens', no middle name. I can give him a call and ask him again."

"Yeah, you do that." Cyrus said under his breath as he made his way to the vehicle hangers. Helios looked up at him confused and followed. Cyrus entered Hanger 4B and went over to his M-99 Panther hoverbike; it was in fair condition but had some scratches and was slightly desaturated.

"You better not be thinking what I think you're thinking." Helios said quickly, still waiting for Germanicus to answer.

Cyrus mounted his hoverbike. "You have that meeting to take care of; I have a sister to save. You got Germanicus yet?"

Just as Cyrus asked, Germanicus' vidcall responded. It showed Germanicus kneeling behind his desk with a pistol in his hand. "Helios, can this wait?" Germanicus practically screamed into the vidcall with his rough, rugged voice.

"G, what's going on?"

"Someone ratted us out! The Imps are here." Germanicus said peeking his head over his desk to the door on the opposite side of the room. "Hey, I said get that door barred now!"

Helios went straight to the point. "G, do you have someone by the name of Ulpia Valens? We need her middle name."

"Ulpia? Yeah, middle name Caecina. What's it to you?"

Helios looked to Cyrus who nodded, confirming the middle name. "Seems like you have Cyrus' sister in your ranks. What happened to her? She with you?"

Germanicus paused for a second to think. "Yeah... yeah, I sent her to meet some other new recruit, some guy named uhh... Secundus..." Germanicus opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a piece of paper, then put it back in. "Secundus Simo. Sent them out on the usual patrol."

Cyrus butt into the call. "What's the usual patrol?"

"We're in Lutetia, the patrol is from here to the North to Gesoriacum. I don't know how far they are, but if you've got something planned, you better-" The transmission cut out abruptly. White noise was all that came through in the vidcall. Helios closed the call and looked more concerned then ever. Cyrus hunched over and rested his arms on his hoverbike's controls, also looking slightly anxious. "Safe hands, huh?"

Before Helios could answer, Calypso called in to him. "Helios, the others are back. Go to the conference room now, we're all waiting on you. Cyrus, I know you're there; you come too."

"Why?" Cyrus asked.

"Because you were a part of that op." Calypso responded harshly. "Anyone involved needs to attend. Otherwise we won't get a thorough report. Now get going."

Cyrus then turned on his hoverbike. "Sorry Calypso, but I have much more important matters to attend to."

"Like what?"

"Finding my sister - and maybe our missing Crucible." Cyrus finalized as he sped off to the North.

Silence fell over both Helios and Calypso for a second. "Helios, you make your way back." Calypso ended the call and switched over to Cyrus' vidcall.

"Don't tell me you found Livia already. How stupid could she be to use one so fast?"

"I'm not certain myself but we were in a vidcall that ended abruptly. No warning, just static all of a sudden. No other object makes that quick of an impact."

"And how do you know it's Livia's?"

Cyrus paused. "I don't. Hey, take it easy with Helios, alright? Crucible or not, we can still get things up and running again, right?"

Calypso seemed surprised. "It's all because of that Crucible, Cyrus. The only reason we haven't disintegrated yet is because of peoples' hope in our claim, and our ruses won't last much longer. I'll be honest with you: people like you are our last hope. You find that Crucible and we'll all be in your debt."

"I appreciate the kind words. I'll contact you back if I find anything." Cyrus hung up without so much as a goodbye.

Meanwhile back at CHAOS, the meeting had started. All members of leadership were present: Calypso, Helios, Ares, Ops, and Saturn. Each of them sat at their respective corners of the large, hexagonal table eyeing each other intently. At least one of them had to have some good news. Calypso called the meeting to order.

"Alright, we'll skip the pleasantries for now. Right now, I want a show of hands: who had at least SOME success with their op?"

No hands were raised, but Helios could feel the pressure being dumped on his shoulders immediately. But before he could react, Ops shifted in her seat. Her metallic mask across her eyes flickered on and off with a bright green-yellow tint. The other members of leadership also noticed her movements as well. Calypso took notice the fastest.

"Ops? You got something?"

Ops raised her head slightly. "Yes and no." She spoke in a very robotic-like tone. Personality was not one of her strong suits, and it wasn't being shown quite effectively now. "Operation Eye for an Eye was not a success, but we did come into contact with very specialized Imperial troopers. They were not your average raid units, but instead acted under the command of one known as Commander Gracchus."

Ares let out a hearty laugh and buckled in his seat. "Ha! Gracchus? You don't mean the Gracchus I'm thinking about, right?"

"If you are thinking of a Commander Gracchus that wields a bow of pure ice, then yes." Ops responded coldly.

"Heh, so it is who I'm thinking of." Ares stroked his beard and leaned over the table to grab a drink of water. "That Gracchus couldn't even pass Gamma Level training. Hard to believe he's leading troops now." Ares took a big gulp of water before continuing. "But comedy aside, that bow of his is nothing to joke about. That thing is cursed. Rumor has it he was charged with attempted murder of a noble who claimed he had his share of 'divine right', got sentenced to a week in prison. Pfft, load of bullshit is what that is. But get this, while he was rotting, he says the cell began to freeze around him and it just latched to his left hand. BAM. Just like that. Now he's got a nasty case of frostbite eating away at his hand but it never falls off. The thing shoots frozen arrows too! Those things hurt. Bad. If he's out in the field again, commanding a whole army..." Ares took another huge gulp of water before letting out a long sigh. "Gods keep us..."

Ops looked toward Calypso. "Calypso, I suggest we halt our operations for new Crucibles in response to Gracchus. He may have picked up on our scent while we were out in the field."

Calypso had her fingers to her temple, trying to think about the situation. "You want me to stop hunting for the one thing on this planet that can save all of humanity, is that right?"

Ops paused for a second, relaying the information back through her mask. "Yes, essentially."

"Well, even if I'm to stop all operations, Helios' protege Cyrus may already be out on one. See, his op failed. Livia made off with the Crucible they recovered, but Helios here believes that Cyrus still has a chance - and maybe I do too."

Helios attempted to object. "Okay, hold on a min-"

Both Ops and Saturn shot up from their seats, almost taking the rest of the room by surprise. "Calypso. Helios. With all due respect, you cannot let Cyrus operate in the field so openly. Not only is he exhausting the working power of our order, but he is also placing the morale of the order in serious jeopardy. You must call him back immediately." Ops debated strongly. Saturn also agreed. "Ops is right." Saturn said in almost a whisper. "Almost everyone down there in the order now knows what Cyrus is up to; word spreads quickly through the organization and if they find out that our last ditch effort to find a Crucible fails, this order falls into anarchy." Calypso pounded her fist onto the table, almost throwing the bottle of water off balance before Ares could save it.

"Enough!" She yelled loudly, reverberating throughout the meeting room. "You think I don't fucking know that? You think there's no hope left? Are we just gonna turtle up and hope that the gods piss on us a little while the rest of the planet rots!? We have a psychopath out there running around with OUR Crucible. We're desperate for help. Yeah... I said it. We need help. Cyrus is the only one who can get this done at this point. The best we can do is support him as much as we can."

Ares crossed his arms and looked at Ops and Saturn. "Crazy as it may sound, but C is right. If Cyrus isn't the most capable right now, who is? We gonna just send out a bunch of our grunts to get a Crucible? Pfft, talk about dips in morale."

Helios could see that he was the deciding vote here. "I'm the one who gave Cyrus this idea. It was originally a spur to help save his sister, but now it's involved what SEEMS like a Crucible. We can't be sure right now." Helios looked to Calypso. "I don't know if I believe him or don't. I just know he has to do this for his sister. In my opinion, we just need to see if it's true before we make any real commitments."

"Sounds about right." Ares responded.

Calypso crossed her arms again. "Fine. I guess we're abstaining for now. I'll still plan new operations, but we'll wait for Cyrus to confirm everything on his end. For now, we can do a little reconnaissance for him, keep him on his toes. If he finds that it was a Crucible, we'll restart operations, hopefully avoiding Gracchus in the process. Sound good?"

The room went silent. Ares and Helios responded with nods but Ops and Saturn remained still.

"Alright then." Calypso said as she made her way out of the conference room. "Meeting adjourned."


End file.
